Football Soup Season – Chicken Pot Pie Soup

I love autumn. I think it may just be my favorite season, minus those snowy nights that are perfectly still and quiet, with bright full moons shining down. The ever changing hues of fall are something which attracts my eyes; as leaves change from green to orange or yellow, red or burgundy. Corn stalks are burnished gold in the sunshine. Leaves fall, sounding like rain drops and are great fun to try to catch. The smell of rain is different, not made up of the thawing smells of spring or the hot misty smells of summer. 

Beyond the feel, sounds, and smells of autumn – I love the flavors! Crunchy apples with each bit ranging between tart and sweet, I have to pause to enjoy each bit and each apple’s fragrance. As the temperatures cool outside, the warming influence of a bowl of soup is lovely and welcoming. A soup that is easy to put together and is a handy crockpot recipe as well.

In the crockpot, add a bag of frozen chicken breast; this is a great recipe for one of those big bags that you can get a good deal on. With that, add a bag of frozen green beans and another of corn. A family size can of Cream of Chicken soup should be spooned in, adding water to the can and pouring it into the crockpot as well. 

Peel approximately a pound of carrots and about a dozen yellow potatoes.  Chop them coarsely and add them to the pot of soup.  Include two large white onions, cut into quarters.  I finish by flavoring my soup with red pepper and a little rosemary.  

Cook until chicken and vegetables are cooked through.  The potatoes and carrots will be tender when cut. Add milk to richen the broth and cook about another twenty to thirty minutes. The chicken pieces will be very tender to either pull apart with a large fork, or remove them with a slotted spoon, cut them up and add back in. 

Chicken Pot Pie Soup - enjoying the warming goodness of the pot pie filler without all the extra calories of the crust.

1 bag of chicken breast, skinless and boneless  *

1 family size bag of frozen green beans

1 family size bag of frozen corn

1 lb. of carrots

1 medium size bag of yellow roasting potatoes

1 family size can of Cream of Chicken soup

2 large white onions

1/2 cup of milk     

Red pepper and rosemary to taste

*If I had had time, I would have used a whole chicken to make this soup.

Dear Autumn,

   I walked out the door this morning, and you were here! I’m so excited to see you. Once again, your arrival is first rate. The leaves are just at a wonderful hue of color, and when the morning sun shines against them they are little lamps of tint and dyes. They crunch under foot and make beautiful waterfall sounds falling from the eaves. You have perfumed the air with the late blooming flowers, sweet and fragrant against the cooling earth. I look forward to the smooth feel of the pumpkins, the taste of the first cider, and the feel of cool wind and warm sun.

   Oh Autumn, I’m so glad you have come. I hope you can stay for a long while.

October in Iowa, July in Alaska

   October in Iowa is beautiful. The corn and soybean fields turn gold, the leaves start changing colors, and the temperatures drop. While there are so many colors outside, the last of the hardy flowers put on a fragrant display of color. Mums in orange, rust, burgundy, yellow, white, and gold line the side of the barn and the brick gate. They balance against the glossy green of the rose bush leaves, and the dark red of the rose hips. Marigolds of orange and yellow continue to bloom, bushed amongst the peppermint and yarrow. The deer are putting on their winter coats, growing darker grey and coming to eat and put on a winter weight. The chipmunks and squirrels are stashing away their walnut and seed findings for a wintry banquet.

   On these days, when there is just a hint of moisture in the air, it reminds me of Alaska in July. It reminds me of the beautiful flowers grown in planters and baskets outside of windows. Carefully tended, the colors showcase every possible blend. The green is seen in the trees, turning into the teals of the water. Beautiful streams made from glacier melt create a feeding area for bear, moose, and other animals. Soon the long winter nights will settle in there, but in July it’s still long days and the colors are amazing.
   As I walk down the street this month, if there is a hint of wetness in the cool air, if there are flowers blooming, be sure that I am thinking of Alaska in July.

Unwrapped

I recently got to tie-dye with some friends. Besides having feet and hands a bit stained, the dying went well. It was so amazing watching the fabric soak up the dye. Then, we had to practice our patience as we let everything sit over night. The next evening, I pulled out the first t-shirt. It was bound still with twine and rubber bands. I rinsed and some of the die came out. Then, after doing the rinse ring cycle several times, it was time to cut away the rubber bands and twine. I was a little nervous doing this. The colors on the outside were really strong and vibrant. But, as I imagined a whole shirt looking like this, I wondered if it would just be a mess of brown on the inside. Starting at one end and moving toward the other, each little binder came off. Much to my amazement and delight, beautiful patterns emerged and the color combinations came together in expected and unexpected ways. Standing out in the grass under the big tree in the front yard, I thought about how we are much the same way. We get bound up and wrapped up in different things, people, events, activities. Our life gets filled up with colorful memories and actions. Even when it is full of good things, the colors on the outside may seem to bright, too much. Eventually, we get so wrapped up that it just looks like one great big color blob on the outside. But then, God unwraps the bindings. Underneath, and in-between the areas where we think that there is just going to a brown muck, there is instead colors and patterns, blending and swirling in unexpected ways.

A Cloak of Color

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, brown, white, grey – these are colors I remember displayed in one of my elementary classrooms, on a string of posters.  We learned our colors as they pertained to things; green grass, blue sky, white snow, and purple flowers.  However, as vocabulary and word usage grows, the way that we use colors expands. 

Despairing in darkness, passion of crimson, happy friendship of yellow, green of growth, blue of contentment, soft pinks and blues for babies, white of hope, grey of confusion. We wrap our emotions in colors, wrapping ourselves in cloaks of color.

Joseph had a cloak given to him, one that was richly ornamented.  His father gave him this to celebrate his son.  Joseph was also wrapped in a cloak of different colors with the events that happened in his life.  I think of how that robe must have looked, many different colors and textures formed together to make each part.  Wrapping that robe around his self, I would imagine that Joseph tried to get a glimpse of how it fit here and there. 

We try on different cloaks as well, as different seasons of our life come and go.  One part may be in joy and another in pain, perhaps trying to be invisible or very noticeable, practical or extravagant, we could describe them all in colors.  Yet, when we wrap that cloak around our shoulders we are deciding how we will perceive things.  Perhaps it will be through rose colored optimism, grey hazy skepticism, or somewhere between. 

Wrapping any cloak around myself, be it one of attitude or one of cloth is a choice.  Many factors can go into that choice, but it my choice and your choice to make.